Having bees without taking the honey?
catherinet
11 years ago
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iammarcus
11 years agoKonrad___far_north
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Honey Bees swarming in PA
Comments (6)That's totally cool. The last swarm I saw was a few years ago when I was helping my DD move cattle to a new pasture and stringing up some temporary electric fence. I parked the mule right under the swarm and didn't even know it until I killed the engine. I had a swarm on my front porch one time when I lived on the outskirts of a little rural burgh. It was too small to even be called a village. I called our County Extension agent who gave me a list of the local bee keepers, who offered to come gather swarms from people who had them in problem places. The first keeper I called jumped at the opportunity and made the trip from the other side of the county. He let us watch in close proximity as he calmly and gently did the deed. I found out he was a friend of our family's who owned a large orchard. Orchards and bee keeping go hand in hand....See Moreconsidering bees but I don't like honey
Comments (4)A lot depends on whether you are willing to, or will enjoy, working with the bees. Most of us have an attraction, or an affinity for the bees themselves first, then for the honey they provide us. Many of us, myself included, are not commercial beekeepers, but do this as a hobby. Our bees are like pets that happen to provide a useful product. But, like any pet they need housing, care, feeding, health checkups, etc. You have to be willing to continue to give of yourself in time, effort, and money. Most people will not do that without the hope or promise of honey. But some do. You can keep a hive just for pollination. Some companies sell starter kits design for garden pollination. Yes, they may swarm, but so what. You've just provided for the start of another colony. Most of us avoid swarms to increase honey production, but in your case that is secondary. Go to your library and read a book on beekeeping. You may find yourself hooked. Otherwise I agree with Tony, ask a local beekeeper to place hives on your property. You get the benefit of pollination without the hastle of caring for the bees. Don'y just get bees and expect them to fend for themselves. It won't work....See MoreHelp with Honey Bees In My Garden!
Comments (1)Is the tree a Tilia tomentosa? Can you post a pic of the tree leaves? Some Tilia flowers can make bees "drunk". The nectar has mannose in it and it makes the bees crawl around under it. Tilia trees have round leaves with a point on them and serrated edges....See Morehow to move wild honey bees
Comments (17)Update: I finished building the the new hive Saturday morning, then put it in place with the escape cone and started clearing branches around the tree. I actually had to clear a couple just to set the hive up under the trunk. Between cutting branches I kept sealing off more spots where they were escaping aorund the cone. Eventually I realized that was a losing battle, and decided that since I was suited up to work bees anyway, I might as well try to locate the hollow they were in and move them. I took a small bit and a dowel to fit and probed around the trunk to find spots where I knew a hollow was near the surface. When I went to start the neighbors borrowed chainsaw, I realized it was out of gas and that I didn't have any premixed 2-stroke fuel handy either. Tried using a bow saw, but that was no fun. So, I put a crosscut blade in the circular saw and did plunge cuts to carve blocks, then a crowbar to break out chunks. The first hollow had dead wood but no bees, worked on another spot for a while and got nowhere as far as actually removing wood. Found another bulge over what was once an old knot near the entrance hole (the entrance cone was still working to steer hive traffic mainly thorugh it instead of around me) I pried back the square I'd cut and out flew a bee, and I saw a flash of comb behind it. So I topped off the smoker (having already realized that week-dead oak leaves were much better smoker fuel than the smoker fuel that came witht he borrowed smoker) and popped out the inital chunk, then decided to carve out a bit more. At this point I really began to appreciate the smoker. Turns out the comb was aligend edgewide to the direction of hte fall, it had a little new wax on the top edge, and was a little squised looking on the bottom edge, but was in remarkably good shape when I started, and they had a few peices of brand new comb on the new top of the hive. The first couple of peices of comb pretty much had to be torn out to make enough room to work, all honey, mostly old comb. The rest of the comb I had to cut in half to pull out and so it would fit on the bars I was tying it to. I started just using Buck skinning knife, but after the first peice, I got a bread knife to have soem reach to cut the combloose way back in the hollow. Each chunk was between 12-15" long and about 8" in height when tied to the bars. Of the peices, about 3-4 where a mix of uncapped honey and brood, which I put near the main entrance to the new hive, and around 10 were honey. I kept a few chunks of the honeycomb that were too small to tie on after making sure they were free of brood. On the brood comb, I even tied on the little peices. When I headed in for the night, long after dark, I think only one sliver of honey was left back in a hollw I couldn't fish it out of and I'd gotten all of the broodcomb in the main cavity. While I'd been working, many of the bees had clustered in the cone/passage. At one point I was afraid they were jammed so I expanded the opening, but it appears they were just clustering. I think most of the bees were still in the corners of the old hive. There may be another section of hollow yet towards the base of the trunk, and that sliver heading up of honeycomb that I'll need to try to get access to if the hive has not fully moved downstair by Monday. Since thier old home is now wide open and all the food and brood is a walk downstairs, I hope they will find their way down quickly. I didn't see the queen, but I was preoccupied transfering the comb and figured morning light would tell if they had decided to move on down, though by the time I was done, the new hive box had started getting pretty full of bees....See Morecatherinet
11 years agoKonrad___far_north
11 years agoCharlie
11 years agoKonrad___far_north
11 years agocatherinet
11 years agoKonrad___far_north
11 years agoKonrad___far_north
11 years agoKonrad___far_north
11 years agojulysun
10 years agocatherinet
10 years agoJoppaRich
10 years agoKonrad___far_north
10 years agoexmar zone 7, SE Ohio
10 years agoKonrad___far_north
10 years ago
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